Orange Bread

Oh, orange bread. How delightful you are! I found the original recipe for orange bread in The New African-American Kitchen by Angela Shelf Medaris. I had checked it out from my local library. By the way, libraries are an excellent source of cookbooks. You don't have to buy them and if you return them on time, it doesn't cost anything to borrow them. Libraries are my one of my favorite places on earth. Anyways, back to the task at hand. I added about ten recipes from The New African-American Kitchen to my book of recipes to try. Orange bread was my first pick to try. This bread is delicious and simple! It tastes good and smells divine.

I love my banana bread and even though I don't think it's too banana-y, Z has never tried it and I am pretty sure he never will because of the bananas. Later he is going to read this and tell me I full of something not very nice but since he isn't here to confirm this statement (he is on a plane coming home from work), I am going to assume he will never eat my banana bread. I tried making zucchini bread once but that was an epic fail. I don't think I used the correct leavening. Ooops. That has potential but oranges were on sale here for $0.88/pound last week. This is the second time I have made this bread with my changes. The original recipe called for 1/2 stick of melted butter. I couldn't bring myself to make it that way. Butter is awesome and delicious. We even have about four pounds of the stuff in the freezer. But, being as cheap as we are, we try to save most of our butter usage for our dal. Instead of ghee, we just use butter. We haven't been able to find butter at reasonable prices. We stocked the freezer with Challenge butter when we got it for $1.25 a pound with a sale and coupons.

So I had to figure out an alternative. For the first attempt, I used yogurt in place of the butter. I either used too much or yogurt is just not meant for this recipe, it didn't work like I had hoped. It was too gummy. This time, I used one tablespoon melted butter and three tablespoons milk. It worked great. Next time, I think I will try two tablespoons milk. I found that my two oranges yielded the necessary amount of juice but not quite the tablespoon of zest the recipe called for. I just used what I had but if I had extra oranges lying around, more zest would be a welcome addition. I also added vanilla. I love the combination of oranges and vanilla. My best friend, Stephanie the awesome pastry chef and cake creator, suggested a glaze for this bread. I haven't had a chance to try it but it sounds amazing and she's an expert. Here is my variation of the orange bread found in The New African-American Kitchen by Angela Shelf Medaris with Stephanie's cardamon glaze. Enjoy!

Orange Bread

1 tablespoon melted butter
3 tablespoons milk
2 cups all-purpose flour
4 tsp baking powder
1/2 cup sugar
1/2 teaspoon salt
2 large oranges
1 egg
1 teaspoon vanilla extract

1. Preheat the oven the 350 degrees F. Spray a loaf pan with nonstick spray (my preferred method) or grease the pan. If using a metal or glass pan, you may want to line the bottom with parchment paper.
2. Zest the oranges directly into the bowl you will be mixing the dry ingredients. You don't want to lose any of the essential oils.
3. Combine the flour, baking powder, sugar, and salt with the orange zest.
4. Crack the egg into a separate bowl and beat. To the egg add the orange juice, butter, milk, and vanilla. Combine.
5. Add the wet mixture slowly to the flour mixture, stirring. When combined, pour the batter into the loaf pan. Bake until a cake tester comes out clean. Cooking times vary with ovens and other variables. Check the bread after 30 minutes of cooking.

Stephanie's Cardamom Butter Glaze

1/2 cup powdered sugar
2 tablespoons butter or margarine, melted
1/4 teaspoon ground cardamom
1/4 teaspoon almond extract
1 to 2 teaspoons warm water

Mix all ingredients in a bowl then slowly add the warm water a little at a time until it's the consistency you would like. Pour over bread.

P.S. Stephanie told me you can make your own powdered sugar by grinding sugar in a food processor. Brilliant and cheap!